RTE trials mobile TV in Dublin

Hooks up with BT Movio

By Team Register • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 12th June 2006 12:02 GMT

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RTE - Ireland's public service broadcaster - is conducting technical trials of a mobile TV service.

Based on BT Movio, BT's wholesale mobile TV service that piggybacks on the Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) network to broadcast pictures to handsets, the service is due to be made available in Dublin.

Those behind the trial will be running two TV channels - RTE One and RTE Two - plus two radio channels building on work already carried out by RTE on DAB digital radio.

"We're excited by the potential of DAB for Radio and RTE's trials to date have been extremely encouraging," RTE head of radio JP Coakley said. "Perhaps it's an indication of the multimedia future that a radio platform is now hosting trials of television in this new format."

Last summer, BT Wholesale hooked up with Virgin Mobile to beam TV programmes direct to handsets as part of a trial involving around a thousand people in the London area.

According to BT, the results from the trial were "extremely positive" and demonstrated there is "clear consumer demand for broadcast digital TV and radio to mobile phones".

Following those trials Virgin Mobile confirmed that it plans to press ahead with the launch of a mobile TV service. ®

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